There has been constant demand for decreasing power consumption in display devices such as liquid crystal display devices. In response, Patent Document 1, for example, discloses a method of driving a display device, which includes an intermission period (also called “non-refreshing period”) that follows a scanning period (also called “charging period” or “refreshing period”) which is a period for refreshing a display image by scanning gate lines that serve as scanning signal lines in a liquid crystal display device. In the intermission period, all of the gate lines assume a non-scanning state and so the refreshing is not performed. During the intermission period, it is possible for example, not to supply control signals, etc. to a gate driver which serves as a scanning signal line drive circuit and/or to a source driver which serves as a data signal line drive circuit. Since this allows the gate driver and/or the source driver to stop operations thereof, the method makes it possible to decrease power consumption. The driving method such as the one disclosed in Patent Document 1, or the method in which a refreshing period is followed by a non-refreshing period (intermission period), is called “intermission driving” for example. The intermission driving is also called “low-frequency driving” or “intermittent driving”. The intermission driving is suitable for displaying still images. Inventions related to intermission driving are disclosed in Patent Documents 2 through 5, etc., other than in Patent Document 1.
Generally, display devices which utilize intermission driving method can switch between normal driving where refreshing is performed at a rate of, e.g., 60 Hz or a higher frequency, and intermission driving where refreshing rate is lower than 60 Hz for example. This makes it possible to decrease power consumption appropriately according to the image which is to be displayed.